In recent decades, scholars have taken great care not to assume that “the śāt?ān” of Job 1–2 and of Zechariah 3 is supposed to be the archenemy of God and the opponent of good, as is Satan in later Jewish and Christian literature. Nevertheless, scholars have yet to eliminate anachronistic assumptions from their discussions of this figure as he is presented in the Hebrew Scriptures, maintaining that the śāt?ān in Job and Zechariah holds the office of heavenly “prosecuting attorney” or “accuser.” After surveying the uses of the noun שָׂטָן and the verb שָׂטַן in the Hebrew Scriptures, this article argues that these words never denote “accusation” in this literature but refer exclusively to physical “attack.” This article further contends that in legal contexts the noun שָׂטָן can refer specifically to an “executioner” and that “the Executioner” is the proper understanding of השַָּׂטָן in Zechariah and Job.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Revelation 12:10)1
Who is Satan? What does Satan do? According to popular imagination and centuries of Christian theology, Satan is the archenemy of God, the opponent of all that is good; Satan does evil. Bible scholars, to their credit, now recognize that the biblical authors conceived of the nature and activity of this figure somewhat di?erently from later theologians. According to the present scholarly consensus, the early literature portrays Satan (or the śātān,,הַשּטָן, as he is referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures) as “the Adversary,” or, more specifically, “the Accuser.”2 He serves God as a sort of prosecuting attorney in the heavenly court. This conception of the early śāt?ān tradition is based on an understanding of the Hebrew root שׂטן, which appears both in the nominal form שָׂטָן and as the verb3 שָׂטַן. The noun שָׂטָן is typically taken to mean “adversary” or “accuser.” The verb שָׂטַן likewise is understood to refer to acts of “opposition” or “accusation.”4 If the standard translations of these words are correct, then so is the scholarly consensus that the śāt?ān of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Adversary or the Accuser.
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Author: Ryan E. Stokes
Keywords: Evil Inclination, Yetzer, Yetser, Yetser hara, Yetzer hara, Yetzer ha ra, Satan, adversary, Devil, Evil One, Angel of Death, Death angel, Fallen angels, Jesus's temptation, Jesus' temptation, Temptation in the wilderness, Temptation, Jesus tempted, Jesus tempted in the wilderness, Tempted in the wilderness, Tempter, Yetser ha ra, Evil impulse, Evil urge, diabolos, executioner, attack, attacker
Bible reference(s): Numbers 22:22, Numbers 22:32, 1 Samuel 29:4, 2 Samuel 19:22, 1 Kings 5:4, 1 Kings 11:14, 1 Kings 11:23, 1 Kings 11:25, 1 Chronicles 21:1, Ezra 4:6, Job 1:6, Job 1:7, Job 1:8, Job 1:9, Job 1:12, Job 2:1, Job 2:2, Job 2:3, Job 2:4, Job 2:6, Job 2:7, Psalms 38:20, Psalms 71:13, Psalms 109:4, Psalms 109:6, Psalms 109:20, Psalms 109:29, Zechariah 3:1, Zechariah 3:2
Source: “Satan, YHWH’s Executioner,” JBL, Vol. 133, No. 2, 2014, pp. 251-70.
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